A pitch-black substance completely wrapped around the Emperor's skeleton, like a hideous suit of armor covering His body.
It further shaped itself into the Emperor's form—unbelievably violent, unbelievably evil.
More black liquid flowed from the Dark Emperor, spreading into the surrounding area and twisting even more matter.
His gaze fell upon everyone at once, as though He were looking down upon His subjects and believers.
High above them all.
Behind the Dark Emperor, the Golden Throne had already lost its original appearance. Its metal had faded, warped, and transformed into some twisted creation.
At any moment, the Throne might collapse completely, merge with the Warp, and drag all of Terra into it.
The instant this being of destruction appeared, every living thing in the entire area was cowed.
"E-Emperor… Your Majesty?"
The Imperium's elites stopped where they stood and involuntarily looked toward the Throne, toward that supreme being.
Under that terrifying aura, they trembled.
Even the Dark Legion of the Damned stopped and paid their respects to their supreme master.
"Father…"
Guilliman, Sanguinius, and the other Primarchs fell silent beneath the gaze of the Emperor—their father.
Even though they knew the being before them was not the true Emperor, they were still intimidated by Him.
The shadows inside their hearts began to surface. In their memories, the Emperor's violent image grew increasingly rampant.
The Primarchs were afraid.
They were afraid of their father.
They did not even dare answer His question.
They had come to stop the Emperor—their father. They would draw blades against Him, and if there was no other way, they would even kill Him.
"He… is not our father. Our father would never take such an abominable form."
Guilliman spoke through gritted teeth, the hand gripping his sword trembling.
The fear in his heart could not be suppressed. He did not know whether he still had the courage to attack this being who so closely resembled his father.
"Hm?"
The Ultramarine Primarch's words drew the Dark Emperor's attention. In silence, He turned His gaze toward them.
With nothing more than a faint questioning sound, He made that Primarch fall silent. Guilliman did not even dare refute Him.
Clearly, the Emperor's paternal authority had become even more terrifying under the amplification of destructive fell energy.
As for Mortarion, Magnus, and the other Daemon Primarchs who had once enjoyed the Emperor's fatherly backhands, their legs nearly went weak.
They almost wanted to kneel.
Not just them—even Horus, who had previously cashed out the Emperor's value and shouted about dragging Him off the Throne to whip His corpse, had gone silent.
He was afraid too. He leaned back inside his cage and did not even dare talk trash.
Within the Warp, the Chaos Gods looked upon this scene and temporarily lost their voices as well.
Fear spread through Their hearts.
This was the Emperor. The Dark King. The most terrifying existence in the galaxy and the Warp.
Even without truly descending, His mere appearance had intimidated every being present. No one dared resist.
His presence was maxed out.
"The old Emperor really is the most explosive man in the galaxy and the Warp. Even after turning dark, He can still stun the entire field…"
Eden looked at the Primarchs and Imperial elites, all of them turned into quails, and felt numb all over.
Was this what kingly dominance looked like? How had even the Primarchs been stunned? Or was this the influence of destructive fell energy?
To be honest, even he felt a little panicked. After all, this was the Emperor's strongest and darkest aspect.
That kind of destruction and fear was impossible to suppress. It was like some kind of law. Even the Chaos Gods were affected.
More importantly, the advantage brought by the sacred formation they had just constructed had failed outright because of the Dark Emperor's premature birth.
The Primarchs and Imperial elites were so affected by His authority that even drawing their swords was difficult. How were they supposed to fight?!
Originally, Eden had planned to unite more than a dozen Primarchs in a strike against the Golden Throne, force the Dark King back down, and prevent Him from breaking free.
Now the plan was dead.
"Not good. This old bastard can even affect my thoughts. If this continues, we're finished!"
When Eden realized that even he did not dare charge the Dark Emperor, half his heart went cold.
He knew he had to charge the Golden Throne to stop the Dark Emperor from breaking free.
But at the same time, he also knew that if he charged in, he might be completely killed by the authority of destruction.
True death.
The Dark King's authority of destruction could even destroy his will to fight?
This was the Dark King's power—invasion and destruction, one of the purest forms of Chaos, a fear that made it almost impossible for anyone to remain rational.
He would advance mercilessly, driving all things toward their destined end, and then annihilate them completely.
If the battle had not even begun, and everyone already discovered that hope had been extinguished and defeat was inevitable, then how could they possibly win?
The Dark Emperor paid no further attention to the people beneath the Throne, as though they were insignificant ants.
Hiss—
He gripped the thick cables on His body and pulled them out little by little. For every inch of cable removed, space shook more violently.
They were not merely energy transmission lines in the physical sense, but unnatural anchors that fixed Him firmly to the Throne.
In truth, it was the Golden Throne and those thick cables that imprisoned the Dark King's body and authority.
This ancient creation had "locked" Him inside galactic reality, preventing Him from merging further into the Warp.
Now, the existence of the ancient artifact Shadowlight had further strengthened the Throne's restraints.
Before Shadowlight fully activated, He had to remove the cables from His body—or rather, the anchors.
Only then could He obtain true freedom.
The Dark Legion of the Damned had already vanished from the battlefield and reappeared around the Golden Throne, firmly guarding their supreme evil god.
Whether the ancient artifact was destroyed no longer mattered.
The Dark King was trying to be born ahead of time. Before the artifact fully activated, He could remove all the anchors!
Once that happened, He would be able to move freely and return to the Warp. Shadowlight would no longer be able to affect Him.
It would be no different from scrap metal.
Although the Dark King had not yet been born, He already instinctively knew how to protect Himself.
After all, this was His most vulnerable moment. He still needed the protection of the Dark Legion of the Damned to keep anyone from interfering with His birth by anchor removal.
"Caw! Stop Him!" the Changer of Ways shrieked from the Warp, the cry piercing and desperate.
He had already recovered from His fear and realized what kind of miserable fate awaited Him once the Dark King escaped the "womb" of the Throne and returned to the Warp.
At that point, the Dark King would not only possess terrifying destructive power, but also command endless Dark Damned warriors.
The daemons under that fifth Chaos God were stronger than the favored champions of any supreme evil god.
Even the warriors of the God of War could not compare to them.
Once the Dark King reached the Warp and launched a divine war against Chaos, the entire battlefield of the Empyrean would be swept clean by the Dark Legion of the Damned.
The Chaos Gods would lose territory after territory. Their divine realms would collapse, and all Their authority would be destroyed.
The Chaos Gods could already foresee Their own fate. Like the Aeldari gods who had lost their divine war, They would be killed or forced to flee into exile.
They would sink completely into eternal fear, with no chance of ever rising again.
"Brothers, we have to attack…"
Eden's gentle voice sounded beside the ears of the Primarchs and the Imperium's elites. He did his best to use the authority of hope to ease the warriors' fear.
They had to fight with their backs to the wall.
Guilliman, Sanguinius, and the other Primarchs suppressed the terror in their hearts. They exchanged glances, then nodded.
After that, they led a group of Imperial elites and charged the Dark Legion of the Damned.
They did not have the courage to swing their blades at the Emperor, but they could carve a path for the Savior.
These warriors had no battle cries. No shouts.
They simply charged into the Dark Legion of the Damned in silence.
Then they swung their blades.
Sword-light and blood erupted in silence. No one even screamed. They merely fell without a sound.
Eden watched those warriors in silence and did not join the battle. He still had to make his final preparations.
At the same time—
Thud, thud, thud—
In the Throne region, ancient war drums and horns sounded, followed by rancid filth, frenzied music, and dazzling flames.
After realizing the situation was dire, the Chaos Gods took action to stop it.
Khorne the Blood God's voice carried unyielding fury. He personally beat the drums to stir the confidence of His warriors.
"My warriors, war is upon us. Stop them. Destroy them…"
In the void, a staircase made of skulls formed. Eighty-eight Bloodthirsters and even more Chaos daemons surged toward the Golden Throne.
They were the vanguard.
After them came Nurgle's Plaguebearers, Slaanesh's Keepers of Secrets, and Tzeentch's Weavers.
After discovering that humans had difficulty attacking the Emperor and also had to guard the ancient artifact, the Chaos Gods dispatched the most elite daemonic legions They could send.
They had to assault the Dark King's Throne and stop His birth!
Roar—
Those Greater Daemons and lesser daemons mustered the last of their courage and launched their final charge against the Dark Legion of the Damned.
Rumble.
The elite Chaos daemon army slammed hard into the shields of the Dark Damned warriors. Flesh struck black metal, sending out wave after wave of muffled impacts.
Yet that black iron wall stood unmoving, blocking every assault.
After withstanding the first charge, the Dark Legion of the Damned lit the black power fields of their blades and swung forward without mercy.
Their blades pierced all armor and flesh, burning the daemons' souls as well.
"Slaughter!"
A Bloodthirster's blood axe came crashing down, striking a Dark Damned warrior's shoulder. Yet even that ferocious blow failed to bite deeper.
His blood axe was stuck.
The next moment, the Bloodthirster's pupils shrank sharply as fear struck him.
But he had no chance left. A black blade cut off his head, and his massive daemonic body collapsed with a boom.
This Bloodthirster, one of the higher-ranked among them, was cut down by the Dark King's elite the instant they clashed.
Even his soul was annihilated and devoured by the Dark King.
Then more Dark Damned warriors swung their blades, and Greater Daemons and lesser daemons fell one after another.
The Dark Legion of the Damned's line remained unmoved even under such a terrifying assault.
Those elite Chaos daemons were like a flood of garish colors crashing against a dam. Filthy blood sprayed everywhere.
They could not break the line at all.
The Imperium's side had the assistance of more than a dozen Primarchs, and realspace was their home field, so their situation was somewhat better than that of the Chaos camp.
Even so, they still failed to break through.
"Dark King!"
At that moment, the roars of the Chaos Gods came crashing down, and a colossal, multicolored vortex formed in the void above the Throne.
A blood-red great axe seemed to split heaven and earth as it descended toward the Throne, burning with flames. A rotten great hand also pierced the veil and pressed down, while countless maggots the size of trucks fell like rain.
Following close behind were kraken-like tentacles of pleasure and iridescent flames covering the sky.
After finding that physical attacks had been frustrated, They launched attacks of authority to suppress the Dark King.
Such terrifying assaults placed tremendous pressure on every living thing in the Throne region.
The oppressive force formed by Chaos fell energy struck the ground like a gale, kicking up massive waves of sand and dust. The Imperium's elites could only plant their swords in the ground to keep themselves standing.
Countless abominable images also surged through their minds.
Yet the Dark Emperor's expression did not change in the slightest. He remained cold and merely raised His head to look at the sky.
Immediately afterward, new fell energy rose. The void was stirred once more, forming a black whirlwind that reached all the way to the atmosphere.
The black whirlwind enveloped the attacks manifested by the Chaos Gods' authority, grinding them to pieces and devouring them completely. Black sword-light could be seen flashing within it.
Boom!
The blood axe was shattered. The colorful flames went out. The rotten great hand and the tentacles crashed down beneath the Himalayas, causing more than half the mountain range to split apart.
As the black fell energy tore and devoured, the void once again became dead and deep.
All authority-based power from the Warp had been swallowed.
The Chaos Gods had lost!
With the Chaos Gods' attack ending in failure, the entire Throne battlefield fell silent. Some Chaos daemons even fled in terror.
Whether the Imperium's elites or the Chaos daemons, all of them felt profound despair.
The Dark King was unmatched.
No one could stop His descent now!
"Savior, what are you still waiting for? Stop Him!" the Changer of Ways shrieked weakly again.
The Dark King was already removing the final anchor. The Chaos Gods were panicking. They began desperately urging the Savior to act.
Their authority-based attack had also been meant to buy time, helping the Sun of Hope further analyze the Dark King's authority.
Only then could a new authority circuit capable of dealing with Him be formed. This required the help of all the supreme evil gods.
Even the Machine Goddess, the Life Goddess, and many lesser gods had participated. No deity wanted the Dark King to enter the Warp.
Now, only that being had a chance to restrain that god of destruction in the material world!
"It's not enough yet. Wait a little longer. The faith-based fell energy still hasn't all arrived.
"How much more do you have? Hand it all over. Borrow if you have to!"
Eden was already drenched in sweat. He was optimizing the previous sacred circuit to deal with the fetal version of the Dark King's authority of destruction.
He did not dare imagine how terrifying that authority of destruction would be once the full official version emerged. In all likelihood, it would crush every knockoff in the Sun of Hope's arsenal.
Fortunately, he was not fighting alone now. The Chaos Gods and even more lesser deities were frantically wiring him funds.
Only by raising the intensity of the Sun of Hope's faith-based fell energy even further would he have a chance to clash with the authority of destruction!
At that moment, the authority of destruction spread even farther. Endless darkness descended.
This caused the Imperial elites and Chaos daemons in the Throne region to lose their sight. They could not see anything beyond a meter around them. It was as if everything outside themselves had become an endless abyss.
Yet the Dark Legion of the Damned's attacks were still coming, and warriors fell one after another.
"Do we… still have hope?" Guilliman knelt on one knee, staring at the Dark Emperor on the Throne and breathing heavily.
Now, those who had lost their sight could only see that abominable god of destruction.
He could not be ignored.
The same was true for the other Primarchs.
None of them could see hope, and none of them could imagine how they were supposed to attack the Emperor, their blackened father, much less defeat Him.
"Hope remains."
Suddenly, the Savior's voice sounded in everyone's ears, dispelling the despair in their hearts.
Then, a sun appeared in the darkness.
It, too, could not be ignored.
It illuminated the entire region.
At the center of the sun stood a figure in golden armor, inspiring beyond words.
"It's complete. The new sacred circuit. The Sun of Hope now truly stands against destruction!"
Eden was unusually excited, especially when he felt the Chaos Gods and countless Warp lifeforms continuing to transfer faith-based fell energy into the Sun of Hope.
They all raised their hands high and offered up their faith-based fell energy.
Unity was strength. The galaxy and the Warp had never been so united.
These days, what god would ever be willing to lend so much faith-based fell energy to someone else? Only he, the Savior, could borrow this much.
And skim a little off the top.
Eden madly burned the faith-based fell energy within the Sun of Hope, then projected the energy through the new authority circuit into the Throne region of Holy Terra.
It lit up the entire sky!
This dissolved the suppression that destructive fell energy had imposed upon the Imperium's elites and the Chaos daemons, and it dispelled their fear.
Not only that, Eden also frantically blessed himself with the power of the Chaos Gods, the power of the Lord of Hell, and the power of the Sun of Hope.
But even that was not enough. He added the power of the Orks.
This made his body swell even further, bursting through his golden armor. Every muscle on his body shone with a hard, polished gleam.
"Waaagh!
"I reckon I can smash you now!"
Eden's confidence exploded, and he charged straight in.
He had gathered the power of countless beings from the galaxy and the Warp into himself.
If even this was not enough to beat the fetal version of the Dark King, then everyone might as well surrender and wait to die.
"Big Brother!"
"Brother Eden!"
As the destructive fell energy was suppressed, Guilliman and the other Primarchs roared and broke through the Dark Legion of the Damned's line.
They charged toward the Dark Emperor on the Throne, their blades spilling sacred light.
"Hmph. You dare raise your blades against me?"
The Dark Emperor looked at the Primarchs rushing toward Him. His hand finally released the cable on His body.
Furious beyond measure, He crushed an incoming blade in His grip.
Then the destructive fell energy erupting from the Dark Emperor blasted Guilliman and the other Primarchs away, pressing overwhelming force upon them.
"Kneel!"
He resembled the Emperor of old more than ever before, yet with even greater majesty. Once again, the Primarchs sank into fear and hesitated.
He was the one who had created these Primarchs with His own hands, and He knew them better than anyone. After His birth, He could even turn them into tools of destruction.
The galaxy and the Warp would burn in the fires of war. All life would die and sink into utter silence.
Under the Dark Emperor's pressure and control, the Primarchs knelt involuntarily, filled with humiliation.
They struggled. Even when the armor over their knees cracked, they could do nothing.
Fear drilled deep into their hearts. They did not dare defy that father.
The Imperial elites and Chaos daemons dared even less to look directly at this Emperor, this accursed one, this Dark King.
It was as though He alone was the ruler and destroyer of the galaxy and the Warp.
"Old bastard!"
Eden's roar rang out.
His muscle-swollen body was like the most unstoppable dump truck imaginable, smashing straight through the Dark Legion of the Damned's line.
Then he slid in low and kicked up several Dark Damned Champions who had raised shields to block him.
The physical strength of this Savior, this Emperor of the Imperium, had nearly reached the limits of the material world. His movements directly tore sonic booms through the air.
He also had the authority of hope, allowing him to break through every form of suppression and blockade from the destructive fell energy.
???
Hearing this, the Dark Emperor suddenly turned, as though facing some kind of threat. Yet the moment He raised His blade, the Savior's violent attack arrived.
"Eat my elbow!"
Using the terrifying momentum he had built up, Eden drove in with an Iron Mountain shoulder-check and smashed his elbow forward.
Under the shocked gazes of Guilliman and the other Primarchs—
The Dark Emperor's blade shattered beneath the elbow strike.
Then the Savior's elbow slammed into His face, twisting His features.
He sent the Dark Emperor flying.
(End of Chapter)
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